Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture launched six more travelers to the edge of the final frontier today, even as the billionaire and his new wife finished up a weekend of wedding festivities in Venice.
The New Shepard rocket lifted off from the Kent, Wash.-based company’s Launch Site One in West Texas at 9:40 a.m. CT (7:40 a.m. PT) today for a 10-minute mission.
An earlier launch attempt had to be scrubbed on June 21 due to concerns about persistent winds at the launch site.
Bezos himself was otherwise engaged during the buildup to today’s launch: He and former journalist and helicopter pilot Lauren Sanchez Bezos left Venice today for their honeymoon after a highly publicized, star-studded weekend of activities surrounding their wedding.
This was Blue Origin’s 33nd New Shepard suborbital launch and its 13th crewed mission. New Shepard’s booster sent the crew capsule to a height of about 105 kilometers (65 miles, or 344,640 feet), just beyond the 100-kilometer (62-mile) altitude that marks the internationally accepted boundary of space.
